Ancient fingerprints found on terracotta figurines from the ancient port city of Thonis-Heracleion, are being studied by an Oxford University Ph.D. student, to reveal the age and sex of the craftspeople – and it turns out that this included men, women, and children! Dating back to the Late and Ptolemaic periods (7th-2nd centuries BC), the research marks only the second ever attempt to research ancient Egyptian fingerprint impressions. The first such study and methodology to employ Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) technology has been led by Ph.D. student Leonie Hoff from the University of Oxford and has been published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology. Through excavations conducted in the 1990s, a total of 60 terracotta figurines were retrieved, including nine which exhibited well-preserved fingerprints. The Agia Eirini Sculptures - Terracotta Army of the Greek World Sheer Fluke: 7 of the Most Amazing Accidental Discoveries in Archaeology! Read moreSection: ArtifactsOther ArtifactsNewsHistory & ArchaeologyRead Later